Arriving Somewhere

Okay, so school and baby have been keeping me super busy. I’ve had plenty of ideas for blog entries, some stuff I think would be really interesting to share but I’ve just been to busy for a proper post.

However, I just had to share this video… thanks to Weird Al.

Google has made available a service that allows anyone to build their own customized Google search right into their own website. The user is able to specify the websites to be searched.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/eureka-your-own-search-engine-has.html

What is one way this might be used? Many librarians (and other people) maintain link lists or web directories that point to trusted resources on the web. What if we also offered a way to search those specific sites as well? Say, at the top of your link list to sites about British Medieval Authors, why not include a search box that searches only those web sites?

I can’t wait to play around with this. Of course, you’ll need a free Gmail account… if you need one send me an email at smithjm [at] gmail [dot] com and I will invite you.

I may be lucky to get in a few hours gaming a month, but I’m still a gamer at heart (a PC gamer at that) – and I’m excited about Nintendo’s innovative new console “Wii” due out in November.

According to the Dallas Morning News:

GameStop said at the show that it will be the only retailer at launch to have playable Wii demonstration units in its stores, so gamers can test the “Wiimote” for themselves.

I’m not sure what the wisdom is behind limiting the demo to one chain… but I guarantee I’ll be there to try it out – and waive my arms around as if I were holding a sword or tennis racket.

Also: Nintendo’s Revolution

I started riding the bus to work again. Yeah for public transportation! Boo to the guy sitting behind me on the way home who’s Nextel phone makes the bus sound like an arcade. And within days of beginning my twice-daily bus ride I caught a nasty cold. When I think about breathing the same air as all of those random people it makes me want to start wearing a mask.

On the flip side, I am able to read during trips… definitely a plus! I picked up my half-read copy of “The NextGen Librarian’s Survival Guide” by Rachel Singer Gordon and am enjoying it immensely.

I particularly liked her quote of Roy Tennant‘s Library Journal article, “Strategies for Keeping Current”

“Learn all the time without even thinking about it. We are born to learn but somewhere along the way many of us pick up the idea that we must be taught in order to learn. We think that if someone doesn’t stand up in front of us and talk to us with either a chalkboard or PowerPoint slides, we cannot learn. We must regain our sense of wonder and our desire to learn.”

While some people may be natural self-learners (self-teachers?) the key is the “desire to learn”. This mirrors a conversation my wife and I had the other day. With the aid of Pimsleur CDs from our local public library, she’s teaching herself Italian. How cool is that!